From Wired
First came the fuss over double compensation for the radio-commercial actors. Then the flap over royalties for recording artists. Now the slap-happy Internet radio business is reeling from another hit, this time from the nation’s most popular network of online stations.
Clear Channel last week ordered its stations to take on the cost of simulcasting radio broadcasts over the Internet, prompting about 150 of its 200 stations to switch off their Web feeds. As the number of webcasters continues to dwindle, survivors wonder if listeners will vanish, too.
“Stations dropping Web streams is pretty bad for everybody,” said James Spath, webmaster for San Francisco rock station KFOG. “The lower the profile, the less people will use it as an option. That’s why we’re trying to keep on no matter what.”
Maintaining streams won’t be easy considering the medium’s complications and expense. Traditional radio stations seem to be especially vulnerable.
“Right now, in any given city, less than half the stations will broadcast on the Internet,” said Kurt Hanson, a radio consultant and newsletter editor. “Two years ago, it was probably getting to two-thirds or better.”
Webcasting itself can cost $1,000 or more per month, and many stations complain that streaming providers are unreliable.
But dead air could be even more costly. In December, the ratings service Arbitron said online listeners — about 320,000 of them per week — made Clear Channel’s stations the most popular radio network on the Internet. The company is sure to lose that title now.
“If radio listeners can’t listen to broadcast stations on the Web, they’re going to find alternatives,” Hanson said. “Broadcast radio will never get them back, or at least they will have a hard time.”
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